Achievements

The Fungal Disease Surveillance and Capacity Project has made significant strides in strengthening regional capacity for fungal diagnostics and surveillance. At least one scientist from each of the nine participating Southern African countries has been trained in medical mycology, including fungal culture identification and antifungal susceptibility testing. The project has successfully initiated point prevalence surveys (PPS) in seven countries—Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, and Lesotho—providing much-needed baseline data on the burden of fungal infections. Notably, Candida auris was identified for the first time in Botswana and Mozambique through laboratory surveillance, and in Zimbabwe through the implementation of optimized wastewater surveillance protocols. Wastewater surveillance, now implemented in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, has proven to be an innovative and effective tool for early detection of high-priority fungal pathogens. Furthermore, the project has strengthened genomic surveillance capacity by training four scientists in fungal whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics, including the use of tools such as FungiPhylogen for phylogenetic analysis and antifungal resistance detection.